Wollondilly Shire is a periurban

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

adjacent to the south-western fringe of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, parts of which fall into the Macarthur, Blue Mountains and

Central Tablelands The Central Tablelands in New South Wales is a geographic area that lies between the Sydney Metropolitan Area and the Central Western Slopes and Plains. The Great Dividing Range passes in a north–south direction through the Central Tablelands ...

regions in the state of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Wollondilly Shire was created by proclamation in the NSW Government Gazette on 7 March 1906, following the passing of the

Local Government (Shires) Act 1905 Local Government (Shires) Act 1905 was a landmark New South Wales statute notable for the compulsory incorporation of local government areas for around 40% of the area of New South Wales. The Act created 134 rural shires, many surrounding a small ...

, and amalgamated with the

Municipality of Picton A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

on 1 May 1940. Wollondilly Shire is named after the

Wollondilly River The Wollondilly River, an Australian perennial river that is part of the HawkesburyNepean catchment, is located in the Southern Tablelands and Southern Highlands regions of New South Wales. The river meanders from its western slopes near Crook ...

. The area is traversed by the

Hume Highway Hume Highway, inclusive of the sections now known as Hume Freeway and Hume Motorway, is one of Australia's major inter-city national highways, running for between Melbourne in the southwest and Sydney in the northeast. Upgrading of the route ...

and the Southern Highlands railway line. Wollondilly Shire contains several small towns and villages broken up by farms and sandstone gorges. To its west is wilderness and includes the Nattai Wilderness and the

Burragorang Valley Burragorang or Burragorang Valley is a locality in the Macarthur Region of New South Wales, Australia, in Wollondilly Shire. It is home to Lake Burragorang, which is impounded by Warragamba Dam. It is located within the Blue Mountains National P ...

. The majority of the Shire is either

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

or forms part of the water catchment for Sydney's water supply. The Shire provides 97% of Sydney's water supply. The

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

of Wollondilly Shire Council is Cr. Matt Gould, an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

politician.

Towns, villages and localities

Towns, villages and localities in the Wollondilly Shire are:

Council history

Wollondilly Shire was constituted by proclamation in the

NSW Government Gazette The ''Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales'', also known as the ''New South Wales Government Gazette'', is the government gazette of the Government of New South Wales in Australia. The ''Gazette'' is managed by the New South Wales ...

on 7 March 1906, following the passing of the ''

'' (Shire No. 122 of 134), and included a wide area bounded by the local government areas of Camden, Campbelltown and Picton and

Nepean Shire Nepean Shire was a local government area in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. Nepean Shire was proclaimed on 7 March 1906, one of 134 shires created after the passing of the ''Local Government (Shires) Act 1905''. It abso ...

. A temporary council of five members was appointed on 16 May 1906, which comprised: Richard Henry Antill of Jarvisfield, Picton, Thomas Donohue of Burragorang, George Frederick Litchfield of Yerranderie,

George Macarthur-Onslow Brigadier General George MacLeay Macarthur-Onslow, (2 May 1875 – 12 September 1931) was an Australian grazier and army officer who commanded light horse units during the First World War. Early life and career George MacLeay Macarthur-Onslow ...

of Camden Park, Menangle, and John Simpson of Macquarie Dale, Appin. The council first met on 15 June 1906, electing Macarthur-Onslow as Chairman of the Temporary Council and C. A. Thompson as secretary and shire clerk. A. P. Minton, was later appointed Shire Clerk in June 1907. The first elections for the council were held on 24 November 1906 for six councillors in three ridings of two councillors each: A Riding, B Riding and C Riding: The final meeting of the Temporary Council and the first meeting of the elected Council was held on 3 December 1906 at The Oaks, at which the chairman of the Temporary Council, George Macarthur-Onslow was elected at the first Shire President of Wollondilly. However, on 11 January 1907, Macarthur-Onslow resigned as president, citing the distance between the shire offices and his home at Camden Park, and John E. Moore was elected Shire President in his place. On 13 February 1908, James O. Moore was elected as Shire President, and re-elected to a second term in February 1909. Following the resignation of James O. Moore in June 1909, Alfred Leonard Bennett was elected Shire President of the on 8 June 1909. On 31 May 1911 part of the Blue Mountains Shire was transferred to the Wollondilly Shire and part of Wollondilly Shire was transferred to the Nepean Shire from 21 March 1940.

Amalgamation with Picton

When created in 1906, Wollondilly did not include the township of Picton, which had already been incorporated as the '' Borough of Picton'' on 15 March 1895. The Borough of Picton became the ''Municipality of Picton'' on 31 December 1906 with the passing of the Local Government Extension Act, 1906. The Picton Municipal Council held a voluntary poll on 1 April 1939, at the request of residents, on the question of the union of the Picton Municipality and the Wollondilly Shire. The poll was resolved in the affirmative, with 197 for and 178 against. The proposal for a "Picton Shire" was subsequently gazetted on 25 August 1939 and on 20 November 1939 the Department of Works and Local Government held an inquiry in Picton on the various issues relating to amalgamation. From 1 May 1940 the Municipality of Picton was amalgamated into Wollondilly Shire and the Shire Council was then expanded to consist of eight councillors representing four ridings. The first Provisional Council comprised: George John Adams and Edgar Henry Kirk Downes for A Riding; Eric Moore and Septimus Ernest Prosser for B Riding; James Thomas Carroll and Edward Wonson for C Riding' and John Bradburn Cartwright and Roy Carrington Pearce for D Riding. The council seat was subsequently moved from The Oaks to Picton.

Demographics

At the , there were 48,519 people in the Wollondilly local government area, with an equal proportion of males and females.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples of ...

made up 2.4% of the population which is on par with the national average. The

median In statistics and probability theory, the median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as "the middle" value. The basic fe ...

age of people in the Wollondilly Shire was 36 years. Children aged 0–14 years made up 23.1% of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 10.8% of the population. Of people in the area aged 15 years and over, 54.9% were married and 10.4% were either divorced or separated. Population growth in the Wollondilly Shire between the 2001 Census and the 2006 Census was 9.18%; and in the subsequent five years to the 2011 Census, population growth was 7.23%. This was higher than the population growth for Australia from 2001 to 2006 (5.78%) but less than the national figure for 2006 to 2011 (8.32%). The median weekly income for residents within the Wollondilly Shire was marginally higher than the national average. At the 2011 Census, the proportion of residents in the Wollondilly local government area who stated their

ancestry An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from whom ...

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

was more than 63% (national average was 65.2%). More than 69% of Wollondilly Shire residents nominated a

religious Religion is usually defined as a social system, social-cultural system of designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morality, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sacred site, sanctified places, prophecy, prophecie ...

affiliation of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

at the 2011 Census, which was well above the national average of 50.2%. Compared to the national average, there was a lower than average proportion of households in the Wollondilly local government area (8.3%) where two or more languages were spoken (national average was 20.4%), and a significantly higher proportion (91.2%) where

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

only was spoken at home (national average was 76.8%).

Council

Current composition and election method

Wollondilly Shire Council is composed of nine

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

s elected proportionally as three separate

wards Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a priso ...

, each electing three councillors. All councillors are elected for a fixed four-year term of office. The

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

is elected by the councillors at the first meeting of the council. Most of the current Council were elected in 2016, with the exception of Matt Smith, who was elected at a by-election following the resignation of former Councillor Ray Law. The current members of the council are:

Shire Presidents and Mayors

Heritage listings

The Wollondilly Shire has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * Appin, Cataract Road:

Cataract Dam The Cataract Dam is a heritage-listed dam in Cataract (formerly Appin), New South Wales, Australia, provides water to the Macarthur and Illawarra regions, the Wollondilly Shire, and metropolitan Sydney. It is one of four dams and weirs in the ca ...

* Appin, Wilton Road: Windmill Hill, Appin * Bargo, Avon Dam Road:

Nepean Dam The Nepean Dam is a heritage-listed dam split across Avon in the Wingecarribee Shire and Bargo in the Wollondilly Shire, both in New South Wales, Australia. The reservoir created by the dam spreads across Avon, Bargo and also Yerrinbool in Wing ...

* Bargo, Hume Highway:

Wirrimbirra Sanctuary The Wirrimbirra Sanctuary is a heritage-listed fauna sanctuary, native plant nursery, education centre and flora sanctuary located off the Hume Highway at 1305 Remembrance Drive, in outer south-western Sydney in the settlement of Bargo in th ...

* Bargo, Main Southern railway 96.265 km:

Bargo railway viaduct The Bargo Railway Viaduct is a heritage-listed railway viaduct over the Bargo River located on the Main South railway approximately from Central, in the south-western Sydney settlement of Bargo in the Wollondilly Shire local government area ...

* Camden Park, Elizabeth Macarthur Avenue:

Camden Park Estate The Camden Park Estate incorporating the Belgenny Farm is a heritage-listed large working historical farm located at Elizabeth Macarthur Avenue, in the south-western Sydney suburb of Camden South in the Camden Council local government area of ...

* Cordeaux, Cordeaux River:

Cordeaux Dam The Cordeaux Dam is a heritage-listed dam in Cordeaux, New South Wales, Australia. It provides water to the Macarthur and Illawarra regions, the Wollondilly Shire, and metropolitan Sydney. It is one of four dams and weirs in the catchment of th ...

* Couridjah, Main Southern railway:

Couridjah railway station Couridjah railway station is a heritage-listed disused railway station located on the Picton – Mittagong loop railway line in the south-western Sydney settlement of Couridjah in the Wollondilly Shire local government area of New South Wales ...

* Menangle, Main Southern railway:

Menangle railway station Menangle railway station is a heritage-listed railway station located on the Main Southern line in the south-western Sydney settlement of Menangle in the Wollondilly Shire local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It is also known ...

* Menangle, Main Southern railway: Nepean River railway bridge, Menangle * Orangeville, Brownlow Hill Loop Road:

Brownlow Hill Estate Brownlow Hill Estate is a heritage-listed former residence and working farm and now residence and dairy farm located at Brownlow Hill Loop Road in the outer south-western Sydney settlement of Brownlow Hill in the Wollondilly Shire local gover ...

* Picton, Hume Highway Deviation: ''Jarvisfield'' * Picton, Main Southern railway:

Picton railway station Picton railway station is a heritage-listed railway station located on the Main South line in the south-western Sydney suburb of Picton in the Wollondilly Shire local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1863 to 19 ...

* Picton, Main Southern railway: Stonequarry Creek railway viaduct, Picton * Picton, Oaks Road: ''Abbotsford'' * Picton, Prince Street:

Victoria Bridge, Picton The Victoria Bridge is a heritage-listed timber trestle truss road bridge across the Stonequarry Creek, located at Prince Street in the south-western Sydney town of Picton in the Wollondilly Shire local government area of New South Wales, Au ...

* Tahmoor, Main Southern railway:

Tahmoor railway station Tahmoor railway station is a heritage-listed railway station located on the Main South line in the town of Tahmoor, part of the Wollondilly Shire local government area of New South Wales, Australia. The property was added to the New South Wale ...

* Thirlmere, NSW Rail Transport Museum, Barbour Road: Rail Paybus FP1 * Warragamba, Coxs River Arms:

Coxs River track The Coxs River track is a heritage-listed former walking track and road and now walking track at Cox's River Arms, Lake Burragorang/Warragamba Dam, City of Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia. The track is also known as the Warragamba ...

* Warragamba, Warragamba Dam:

Megarritys Bridge Megarritys Bridge is a heritage-listed bridge across the Megarritys Creek, located at Warragamba Dam in the outer south-western Sydney suburb of Warragamba in the Wollondilly Shire local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was ...

* Warragamba, Warragamba Dam:

Warragamba Dam - Haviland Park Warragamba Dam – Haviland Park is a heritage-listed former farm, dam, timber getting, Gundungurra traditional lands and squatter's land and now parkland located at Warragamba Dam in the south-western Sydney settlement of Warragamba in the ...

* Warragamba, Warragamba Dam: Warragamba Dam Emergency Scheme * Wilton, Wilton Park Road: ''Wilton Park''

Local media

Wollondilly is home to two local newspapers, the ''Macarthur Chronicle Wollondilly edition'' and the ''Wollondilly Advertiser''. Other regional media which serve the area are radio stations, 2MCR and C91.3FM, the ''District Reporter'' newspaper, and the ''Wollondilly Trumpeter'', a newsletter.

References

External links

Wollondilly Shire Council
{{Authority control Local government areas of New South Wales 1906 establishments in Australia Hume Highway Georges River

Wollondilly Wollondilly Shire is a periurban local government area adjacent to the south-western fringe of Sydney, parts of which fall into the Macarthur, Blue Mountains and Central Tablelands regions in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Wollondil ...